In the future, if you want to go somewhere or have your robot do something, you might only have to think about it. The University of Florida held a race April 22 which it called the first drone race controlled by the thoughts of the pilots. According to Motherboard, the pilots used a device that measured the electrical signals from their brains, called a brain-computer interface (or BCI) to direct the drones. The pilots look at a computer program, think about going "forward," and the drones slowly move ahead. "Think forward--think about pushing a chair forward," Juan Gilbert, a computer science professor at the University of Florida, said in a video released by the university. "We learn to navigate the drone based on brain patterns for specific things you are thinking about."

Recorded "LIVE" at KFNX studio in Phoenix AZ, join Aurora Light and Doctor Whodini every Sunday Evening starting at 6:00PM PT (9:00PM ET). James is Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota Duluth. He has published more than 100 articles and reviews and 20 books in the philosophy of science and on the theoretical foundations of computer science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive science. On this web page, his publications have been divided by area, including special vitae for computer science, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, evolution and cognition, and his applied philosophical research on the death of JFK. BOOKS: "Assassination Science: Experts Speak Out on the Death of JFK," "The Great Zapruder Film Hoax: Deceit and Deception in the Death of JFK," "Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know that We Didn't Know Then about the Death of JFK," "The 9/11 Conspiracy: The Scamming of America," "Nobody Died at Sandy Hook" and "And I suppose we didn't go to the moon, either?"

An historic milestone in artificial intelligence set by Alan Turing - the father of modern computer science - has been achieved at an event organised by the University of Reading. The 65 year-old iconic Turing Test was passed for the very first time by computer programme Eugene Goostman during Turing Test 2014 held at the renowned Royal Society in London on Saturday. 'Eugene' simulates a 13 year old boy and was developed in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The development team includes Eugene's creator Vladimir Veselov, who was born in Russia and now lives in the United States, and Ukrainian born Eugene Demchenko who now lives in Russia. The Turing Test is based on 20th century mathematician and code-breaker Turing's 1950 famous question and answer game, 'Can Machines Think?'.

Ben Dickinson recently wrote in TechCrunch, "Computers and mobile devices running rich operating systems have a plethora of security solutions and encryption protocols that can protect them against the multitude of threats they face as soon as they become connected to the Internet. Such is not the case with IoT. Of the billions of IoT devices presently in use, a considerable percentage are sporting low-end processing power and storage capacity and don't have the capability to become extended with security solutions. Yet they are connected to the Internet, nonetheless, which is an extremely hostile environment.

Baidu has launched a research project on artificial intelligence (AI) called the Verne Plan, and brings together scientists and science fiction writers to turn imagination into reality. China's Internet giant Baidu has launched on April 1 a plan to set up a consulting team that included science fiction writers in its research on artificial intelligence (AI), China Daily reported. The report said that the Baidu Verne Plan is expected to bring together the world's best science fiction writers and leading scientists with the aim to help turn imagination into reality. According to Baidu, they have already invited six people to be the first group of advisers in the team for the project named after the 19th-century French novelist Jules Verne, adding that some of Verne's ideas, such as helicopters, had been realized in the 20th century. Some of the science fiction writers included in the team of five advisers are Liu Cixin, the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel last year for his book "The Three-Body Problem," and David Brin, an award-winning author from the United States.

One of the huge drawbacks of modern technology is that it fills the air around us with radio signals. From your kitchen radio to your LTE-enabled smartphone, all of these devices use radio waves to communicate. Unfortunately, there is only a certain amount of radio frequencies that can be used. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is looking for a way around this problem, and wants teams to develop an artificially intelligent system that will control what devices use what radio waves and when. Basically, instead of forcing devices to make use of narrow frequency bands when the spectrum gets congested, DARPA wants devices to negotiate sharing frequencies when they need them.

Everyone knows about the giant skills gap that is haunting the IT sector worldwide. According to IoT company PTC, it is estimated that in the next ten years more than two million IT and communication jobs will be unfulfilled. To address this, several universities have come up with degrees that address the different skills needed in the IoT market, including user interfaces, networks, artificial intelligence, networking, and others. CBR lists ten courses being taught in the UK institutions. Offering both a full time or part time (12 and 24 months respectively) course, University of London's Royal Holloway has built a degree based on computer science, technology and engineering.

Imagine a human being born on the cusp of a robotic revolution. At first, when the machines take over the economy, Bill is stoked. He wakes up late every morning, smokes some 22nd century weed and then watches TV. His degree in accounting has become worthless, because there is nothing he could do that couldn't be done better by a machine. Bill plugs his brain into a virtual world, becomes obsessed with killing dragons and winning digital gold, and dies shriveled and alone as a level 900 paladin.

China continues to accelerate its bid to grab the initiative in 21st-century robotics and artificial intelligence development as the next emerging global powerhouse. Small wonder that the world's leading manufacturing giant has already raced past the rest of the world as a major user of robots. According to the China Robot Industry Alliance, the country is already a flourishing hub for consumer robotics and is poised for a radical transition from its human-based workforce to an automated Artificial Intelligence or AI-based alternative. Its recent unveiling of the incredibly adept and efficient personal robot BIG-i is a pertinent example. Dubbed "butler," this humanoid is primarily a service robot with the programmed ability to aid homeowners in the performance of a wide variety of household errands.

The firm says it will grow its team to more than 100 researchers and engineers by the end of the year, and has already moved several staff from its new Autonomous Driving Unit (ADU) to Sunnyvale and hired a Tesla Autopilot software engineer. Liang Heng, a PhD graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, joined Tesla last year after CEO Elon Musk requested hardcore software engineers join the firm's efforts to make its Autopilot system fully autonomous. He has left Tesla after just 5 months to join Baidu's team as a software architect. Before joining Tesla, Heng worked at Google on Street View. The person in charge of Baidu's ADU, Jing Wang, also just happens to be a former Google employee.